BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.4.2//EN BEGIN:VEVENT UID:23@wessexleague.org DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260926T090000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260927T180000 DTSTAMP:20260814T165407Z URL:https://wessexleague.org/events/wessex-league-2026-oxford-radley/ SUMMARY:Wessex League 2026 - Oxford Radley DESCRIPTION: \;\nThe Wessex League returns to Oxford to open a brand-ne w season.\nThe first round of the year brings together fencers from across the league\, all looking to make an early statement and get their season off to a strong start. With new matchups\, familiar rivalries and the firs t ranking points up for grabs\, every bout counts from the opening exchang e.\nThe season starts here. Oxford is ready.\n\nSkill Divisions\nWe aim to run skill divisions whenever the number of participants and schedule allo ws. For this event that will be Open Longsword and Open Sabre. Participant s will be divided into each tournament based upon their HEMA Rating shortl y before the event. Those without a public HEMA rating will be placed to t he best of our abilities.  Simply sign up for the tournament and you will later be placed in the appropriate event.  In future events\, medalists from earlier league events this year will also be placed into the the A di vision regardless of rating. The league points for A and B are the same\, but you cannot win a league medal if you have not reached a quarter final in the A division for the weapon or an undivisioned tournament. Anyone wit h enough points to be considered for a medal will be placed in A for the f inal event.\n\nWe will be running  the following competitions:\n\n Open Longsword (A &\; B)\n Open Rapier &\; Dagger (No division)\n Open Sabre (A &\; B)\n Open Sword &\; Buckler (No division)\n Women's+ Longsword (No Division)\n Women's+ Rapier &\; Dagger (No division)\n Women's + Sword &\; Buckler (No Division)\n Women's + Sabre (No Divisi on)\n\nIf you miss out on tickets for a particular tournament there is a w aiting list which we will offer tickets to as and when they drop out. We r ecommend registering for any other tournaments you are interested in\, and then filling out the waiting list form here.\n\nSchedule\n\nPlease note t hat schedule is subjec to change. Fencers and Volunteers are expected to b e present and avaliable the entire day.\n\n\n\n \;\nVenue &\; Trave l:\nRadley College\,\nKennington Rd\, \n\nRadley\, \n\nAbingdon \n\nOX14 2 HR\nSocials\nFriday social: TBA\nSaturday social: TBA\n\nMeals and refresh ments:\nWe recommend bringing food with you. Budgens in Abingdon is 1.6 mi les away\, Sainsburys towards Oxford is 3 miles away.\n\nTea\, coffee and biscuits will be provided for staff only. Anyone staffing at any point ove r the weekend may help themselves at any time.\nRules &\; Equipment\nPl ease be sure to read the tournament rules and minimum required equipment r equirements. It is your responsibility to make sure you have the correct e quipment for the event - if you do not have sufficient or appropriate equi pment you will not be allowed to fence in the tournament. If you are missi ng particular items please contact us and we may be able to arrange someth ing to be borrowed.\n\nSword Changes\n\nThe following rules codify how Wes sex League the "vibes based" sword check run prior to 2024\, or make chang es that either increase permitted swords or do not block swords used last year. Almost all swords that passed checks last year will pass this year\, although some swords may need to be tipped that weren't previously. These rules will be changing from 2026 to further reduce swords that are too st iff.  We are giving a year grace period to allow people to acquire new sw ords if necessary.\n\nMaximum flex on swords (measured by pushing the swor d into a scale from the crossguard and taking the maximum reading):\nLongs word: 16Kg\nSabre and Sword &\; Buckler: 14kg\nRapier: 12kg\n\nTip Area \nNo sword may have a tip area below 75mm2 (9mm bullet case\, Sigi Standar d Longsword)\, with a preferred tip size over 120mm2 (greater than .323 bu llet case\, or Regenyei Standard rolled tip). Swords with plastic tips may be up to 1cm longer than the normal allowed sword length maximum to allow for the extra material in the tip.\n\nNote: please check your sword befor e coming\, in particular sabres\, sideswords and arming swords as many of these have smaller tips. Many smaller tips (e.g. heat shrink end caps) can also come below this minimum. We will have tipping supplies present but y ou must tip your sword at least 45 minutes before you are fencing to allow the plastic to set. PCL thermoplastic (recommended brand: Whitemorph or C olourmorph by Thermoworx) remains our preferred method for tipping\, see t his article for best practice on tipping: https://historicalfencingresearc h.com/2025/06/13/common-thermoplastic-tip-failures-and-how-to-avoid-them/\ n\nSword Length\nSwords for Sword &\; Buckler may be up to 95cm in leng th. This reflects the changes in the market since the rules were first wri tten as many sidesword providers do not offer swords within our original p ermitted lengths.\n\nSword Mass:\nThe maximum mass for longsword is reduce d to 1700g\nThe minimum mass for sabre is reduced to 750g\n\nWomen's+ Tour nament Entries\nThe women’s category in HEMA tournaments was originally created to provide meaningful challenges for women. The ultimate aim of pr oviding them has been to: allow fencers to test their skills in a situatio n without routine physical disadvantages\; understand their progress relat ive to their peers year on year\; give greater access to tournaments to an under-represented gender in our sport\; ensure people realise that their gender does not prevent them from participating in HEMA.\n\nWhile the prim ary intent in the past has been to support women\, we recognise that many of considerations above apply equally to many non-binary fencers as well. Therefore\, this tournament is open to:\n  a) Women (for the avoidance of doubt: cis or trans)\n  b) Any non-binary fencers who feel the issues ab ove also apply to them\, and that their presence in the tournament wouldn ’t detract from the aims in regards to women\n\nWe recognise that there are a wide range of non-binary genders\, and not all of them will feel com fortable participating in the women’s tournament. It is entirely up to t he fencer in question whether they think the Women's+ is suitable for them . The Open tournaments are all open to any gender. \nVolunteering:\nIf yo u would like to volunteer but haven't signed up\, there may still be oppor tunities depending on how many volunteers we have. Please fill out the Vol unteering details below and email at wessexleague@gmail.com so that we can apply the discount after the fact.\n\n Competitors who would like to hel p us as volunteers receive a discount on your ticket in exchange for worki ng 2 shifts using code \n This year we are offering one free tournament entry for volunteers\n If you wish to compete and volunteer\, use code Vo lunteers2026\n ONLY volunteering as an official\, without participating i n any tournaments – FREE of charge. We will pay up to £50 towards you r travel costs and will provide lunch on a day of volunteering.\n\nCost to attend: \n• ONLY volunteering as an official\, without participating in any tournaments – FREE of charge.\n\n £40 per competition entry\ n\nDisclaimer: By registering you agree to the following statement:\n\n“ I understand that whilst every care will be taken to give safe instruction \, I accept full responsibility and consider myself fit to participate\, a nd that there are inherent risks with competitive martial arts. I will fol low instructions by judging staff and tournament organisers\, be respectfu l of my fellow competitors\, and use equipment in good condition with no k nown flaws. I have answered all questions correctly and all medical and he alth considerations are noted below.”\n\nHow we use your data: Your will be used primarily for managing our events\, and for research into safety at HEMA tournaments.  By registering you agree to share the data from you r matches with HEMA Ratings and HEMA Scorecard\,. We cannot accept your re gistration if you do not agree to this as these are necessary to run the e vent. Your results will also be posted on our website. We record injury da ta as part of understanding and managing risk across our events. Anonymise d data (including injury data) may be shared with researchers for specific projects\, but we will not share your name or other details\, and your da ta will never be used for marketing purposes outside of informing you of o ur own events. For a more detailed description see our privacy page.\n\nIf you don't want to appear in HEMA Ratings\, you can contact HEMA Ratings d irectly and ask for your record to be anonymised. Your data will still be submitted\, but it will not appear in any public page. If your HEMA rating is anonymised\, please email us about whether you feel Tier A or Tier B i s more appropriate for you in any of the tournaments you have registered f or.\nIf a tournament doesn't appear in the list below it means it is sold out. If you missed out on a tournament please sign up to the waiting list by clicking here. If anyone drops out we will contact you. 2 weeks after b ooking opens we will be reviewing W+ spaces and may expand opens if there are free pistes. LOCATION:Radley College\, Kennington Road\, Radley\, OX14 2HR\, United King dom X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Kennington Road\, Radley\, OX14 2HR\, United Kingdom;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=Radley College:geo:0, 0 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/London X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/London BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20260329T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR